April 14, 2012

The skirt is mine...the frilly A-line skirt is mine!

The battle rages on! The latest spat in local fashion is the
high waisted, A line frilled waistband skirt
shown at Thula Sindi AND Stoned Cherrie. The skirts are extremely similar, the only
difference being that Sindi
used lightweight nylon taffeta and Stoned Cherrie used their woven fabric range.

Thula Sindi is quoted in the Mail & Guardian saying...

"I was very surprised to see the skirt, which
is remarkably similar to mine in pattern, detail and proportion, walking down
the runway. Certain editors and bloggers immediately alerted me to the glaring
similarity. When I landed my deal with Edgars, the skirt was central to the
collection and was in all five stores from September 2011."

The Thula Sindi skirt

Thula Sindi is alleging Stone Cherrie jacked the design from
Thula Sindi’s Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Jo’burg line that debuted – February 2011
as part of his winter collection. Stoned Cherrie showed the skirt at SA Fashion
Week in Rosebank – last weekend of March 2012.

In
response, Nkosi, the founder and creative director of Stoned Cherrie, said the
brand's skirt was created at the end of 2010.

The Stoned Cherrie skirt

"We had designed a box-pleat waist skirt
before for an Amsterdam-based exhibition in Cape Town called Salon/Locale in
February 2011, which Harry Lekwane, one of our designers, had conceptualised
before the exhibition. We are not aware of any copyright that Thula Sindi has
on this concept and should he believe that it was stolen, then are we to assume
that he also stole the concept from Prada and Fendi skirts?” ~ says Nkensani Nkosi.

“...we are inspired by osmosis and assimilation. In this
day and age, with so many shared images going around, it is difficult to claim
something completely as yours, because I think somebody will find something
that is so similar that you could argue both sides of the coin anyway."

For the designer, it must bite terribly though! Concepts
and patterns...it’s tricky. Whether it is film, music or fashion...is there
really such a thing as an original idea? Pablo Picasso was on it years ago when
he said: "Good artists borrow; great artists steal." *Yeezy shrug*